Île de la Cité

Wednesday, 5 October 2016 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, Paris / Île-de-France
Reading Time:  9 minutes

© GuidoR/cc-by-sa-3.0

© GuidoR/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Île de la Cité is one of two remaining natural islands in the Seine within the city of Paris (the other being the Île Saint-Louis). It is the centre of Paris and the location where the medieval city was refounded. The western end has held a palace since Merovingian times, and its eastern end since the same period has been consecrated to religion, especially after the 10th-century construction of a cathedral preceding today’s Notre Dame. The land between the two was, until the 1850s, largely residential and commercial, but has since been filled by the city’s Prefecture de Police, Palais de Justice, Hôtel-Dieu hospital and Tribunal de commerce. Only the westernmost and northeastern extremities of the island remain residential today, and the latter preserves some vestiges of its 16th-century canon‘s houses.

The Pont Neuf, the “new bridge” that is now the oldest bridge in Paris, was completed by Henry IV, who inaugurated it in 1607. The bronze equestrian statue of Henry IV was commissioned from Giambologna under the orders of Marie de Medici, Henry’s widow and Regent of France, in 1614. After his death, Giambologna’s assistant Pietro Tacca completed the statue, which was erected on its pedestal by Pietro Francavilla in 1618. It was destroyed in 1792 during the French Revolution, but was remade from surviving casts in 1818. The sculpture originally rose from the river on its own foundations, abutting the bridge; since then, the natural sandbar building of a mid-river island, aided by stone-faced embankments called quais, has extended the island, which is planted as the teardrop-shaped Parc Vert Galant in honour of Henry IV, the “Green Gallant” King.

The Place Dauphine, laid out in 1609 while the Place des Vosges was still under construction and named for the Dauphin of France, the future Louis XIII, was among the earliest city-planning projects of Henry IV. The space, essentially a triangle because of its promontory location, was made over to Achille de Harlay for development. Twelve lots were sold, and forty-five irregularly sized houses were constructed behind a standardized façade. The houses were built of brick with limestone quoins supported on arcaded stone ground floors and capped by steep slate roofs with dormers, very like the contemporaneous façades of Place des Vosges. There were originally two entrances to the Place Dauphine, one at the “downstream” point, through a kind of gateway centred on paired pavilions facing the equestrian statue of Henry IV on the far side of the Pont Neuf, and the second in the center of the eastern range. Badly damaged during the turmoil of the Paris Commune of 1871, the eastern range was swept away in 1872 to open the view to the monumental white marble Second Empire Palais de Justice (built 1857–68), like a glazed colonnade centered on the Place Dauphine, the remains of which now form a kind of forecourt to it. Few visitors penetrate the Place Dauphine, which lies behind them, and where all the other buildings have been raised in height, given new façades, rebuilt, or replaced with heightened pastiches of the originals.

© GuidoR/cc-by-sa-3.0 © David Monniaux/cc-by-sa-3.0 © Daniel Vorndran/DXR/cc-by-sa-3.0 © Benh LIEU SONG/cc-by-sa-4.0 Plaque commemorating the burning of Jacques de Molay © PHGCOM/cc-by-sa-3.0 Map of Île de la Cité © OpenStreetMap - Paris 16/cc-by-sa-4.0
<
>
Plaque commemorating the burning of Jacques de Molay © PHGCOM/cc-by-sa-3.0
Three medieval buildings remain on the Île de la Cité (east to west):

The oldest remaining residential quarter is the Ancien Cloître. Baron Haussmann demolished some of the network of narrow streets, but was dismissed in 1869 before the entire quarter was lost. Old engraved maps of Paris show how, when the Pont Neuf was built, it grazed the downstream tip, the “stern” of the island-ship. Since then, the natural sandbar building of a mid-river island, aided by stone-faced embankments called quais, has extended the island, which is planted as the small Vert Galant park (“square du Vert-Galant”), named for Henry IV of France, the “Green Gallant” king whose statue stands near the center of the bridge. It retains the original low-lying riverside level of the island. Nearby, a discreet plaque commemorates the spot where Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was burnt at the stake, 18 March 1314. The upstream tip of the island is the site of the Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation, a memorial to the 200,000 people deported from Vichy France to the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War.

Read more on parisinfo.com – Île de la Cité and Wikipedia Île de la Cité (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Johns Hopkins University & Medicine - Coronavirus Resource Center - Global Passport Power Rank - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.




Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island

The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island

[caption id="attachment_183071" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © flickr.com - Eli Duke/cc-by-sa-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Grand Hotel is a historic hotel and coastal resort on Mackinac Island in Michigan, a small island located at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac within Lake Huron between the state's Upper and Lower peninsulas. Constructed in the late 19th century, the facility advertises itself as having the world's largest veranda. The Grand Hotel is well known for a number of notable visitors, including f...

[ read more ]

Dachau in Upper Bavaria

Dachau in Upper Bavaria

[caption id="attachment_153420" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Historic District - Konrad Adenauer Street © Schlaier/cc-by-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Dachau is a major district town of the administrative region of Upper Bavaria, in the southern part of Germany, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) north-west of Munich. It is now a popular residential area for people working in Munich with roughly 40,000 inhabitants. The historic centre of town with its 18th-century castle is situated on an elevation and visible over a great dist...

[ read more ]

Matanzas in Cuba

Matanzas in Cuba

[caption id="attachment_164251" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Jerome Ryan - www.mountainsoftravelphotos.com/cc-by-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Matanzas is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas. Known for its poets, culture, and Afro-Cuban folklore, it is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas, 90 kilometres (56 mi) east of the capital Havana and 32 kilometres (20 mi) west of the resort town of Varadero. Matanzas is called the City of Bridges, for the seventeen bridges that cros...

[ read more ]

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

[caption id="attachment_4522" align="alignleft" width="590" caption="© guggenheim.org"][/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1937 by philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim and his long-time art advisor, artist Hilla von Rebay. The foundation is a leading institution for the collection, preservation, and research of modern and contemporary art and operates several museums around the world. The first museum established by the foundation was The Museum of Non-Objective...

[ read more ]

CBGB Bowery on the Bowery in Downtown Manhattan

CBGB Bowery on the Bowery in Downtown Manhattan

[caption id="attachment_205945" align="aligncenter" width="590"] CBGB club facade in 2005 © Adicarlo/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters CBGB were for Country, BlueGrass, and Blues, Kristal's original vision, yet CBGB soon became a famed venue of punk rock and new wave bands like the Ramones, Television, Patti Smith Group, Blondie, and Talking Heads. ...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Crimea - The spa and holiday resort Yalta

Theme Week Crimea - The spa and holiday resort Yalta

[caption id="attachment_159806" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Livadia Palace - Yalta Conference © Hinnerk/cc-by-sa-3.0-de[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Yalta is a resort city in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea. It is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black Sea, surrounded by wooded mountains. It has a warm humid subtropical climate with many vineyards and orchards in the vicinity. The term "The Greater Yalta" is used to designate a part of the Crimean southern coast spanning from Foro...

[ read more ]

The Spectrum of the Seas

The Spectrum of the Seas

[caption id="attachment_231643" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Dickelbers/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Spectrum of the Seas is a Quantum-Ultra-class cruise ship currently operated by Royal Caribbean International and the first ship of the Quantum Ultra class, a modification from the company's Quantum class of ships. The ship was constructed at Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany and was delivered in April 2019. At 169,379 GT, she became the fifth largest ship in the fleet by gross tonnage upon delivery. She currentl...

[ read more ]

Canada: Bon appétit!

Canada: Bon appétit!

[caption id="attachment_171212" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © George F.G. Stanley[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Canadian cuisine varies widely depending on the regions of the nation. The three earliest cuisines of Canada have First Nations, English, Scottish and French roots, with the traditional cuisine of English Canada closely related to British cuisine, while the traditional cuisine of French Canada has evolved from French cuisine and the winter provisions of fur traders. With subsequent waves of immigration in the 19th an...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Iran

Theme Week Iran

[caption id="attachment_161767" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Tehran skyline © Amir1140/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Iran is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), it is the second-largest country in the Middle East and the 18th-largest in the world. With 78.4 million inhabitants, Iran is the world's 17th-most-populous country. It is the only country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The country's central location in Eurasia and Western Asia,...

[ read more ]

Arica in Chile

Arica in Chile

[caption id="attachment_171368" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © panoramio-com - eurimaco/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Arica is a commune and a port city with a population of 196,590 in the Arica Province of northern Chile's Arica y Parinacota Region. It is Chile's northernmost city, being located only 18 km (11 mi) south of the border with Peru. The city is the capital of both the Arica Province and the Arica and Parinacota Region. Arica has a mild, temperate climate with some of the lowest annual rainfall rates an...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top
© startup-berlin.com
Start-ups: Berlin still on the rise

The start-up scene in Berlin continues to win in importance and dynamics this year. However, London, by the number and...

Harmony of the Seas © flickr.com - FaceMePLS/cc-by-2.0
The Harmony of the Seas

MS Harmony of the Seas is an Oasis-class cruise ship built by STX France at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard...

European Court of Justice © flickr.com - sprklg/cc-by-sa-2.0
European Court of Justice

The European Court of Justice (ECJ), officially just the Court of Justice (French: Cour de Justice), is the highest court...

Schließen